Gilda yawned and stretched upon waking. Getting up, she walked over to the table holding a small collection of morsels that had been set aside for their breakfast. The throbbing in her rear made herself-conscious and reminded her of what she and the shadowcat had done last night.

It would be great to be able to keep that winged cat, she thought with a grin.

"You're walking rather funny," Panthera giggled, stepping up beside her, but she didn't partake of anything on the table.

"Why aren't you?" Gilda demanded.

"Practice," the shadowcat said as she nuzzled Gilda.

"Practice! With as much as I used my beak on you?" Gilda exclaimed. "Heh! A few more times to practice like that and I could really like us to stay together forever." Panthera stiffened at that.

"Unfortunately, that won't be possible," the shadowcat sadly said. "We can't stay."

"Why not?"

"When Trevar leaves in a couple months, Pardus and I will be going with him," Panthera told her.

"How about if I go with you?"

"Hmm. Tempting. Very tempting. But problematic."

"How so?" Gilda asked.

"How comfortable are you with dragons?" Panthera asked. "Plus, there's the matter of you not being able to see any of your family and friends here for an indefinite time, if ever. Not to mention the hostile environment that is Trevar's home. You think you're a mighty hunter? There, you would quickly become the prey for a species that doesn't even hunt for food, but for trophies. And you'd be outnumbered seven billion to one!"

"Then why are you leaving Equus?"

"Because of Trevar, for one," Panthera replied. "And Pardus and I are a lot harder to kill, for another. I like you. I like you a lot. But I would never want to see you suffer and die in his world. And there, you will."

"…"

"But, hey, we can have a great time while we're still here," Panthera finished, nuzzling Gilda's neck again.

"Yeah," Gilda muttered, sadly thinking about it. But then she realized Panthera was right. There was plenty of time for them to enjoy each other's company. "Yeah!" she repeated with much more enthusiasm. Gilda quickly grabbed an apple and packed it away in a couple bites.

"Hey, I got an idea," Panthera suddenly spoke up with a mischievous look. "Spread your wings and close your eyes!"

"?"

"Trust me, you're gonna love this!" the shadowcat said, grinning.

"Okay…." Gilda drawled, as she complied with Panthera's request.

She stood there, not knowing what to expect, other than perhaps a new game involving her egg channel. Her tail raised and whipped a bit at the thought. As she waited, she began to feel wind gently flowing over her wings. In a few seconds, the pressure got stronger.

That's weird, Gilda thought. "What are you doing?"

"Just keep your eyes closed," Panthera said with a giggle.

"?" Gilda said when she felt the "wind" start digging down into her feathers. The next moment, the sensation reached her skin and Oh, SQUIT! That is awesome! she thought as she gasped as the exquisite feeling. It was quickly setting her body to trembling. She couldn't keep her eyes shut any longer—she just had to see what was causing such a wondrous…

She looked at what was going on with her wing. She wished she hadn't looked. Her blood suddenly froze at the sight of her wings getting…

"Gyaaaahhhh!" she screamed as she jumped away from the meat shredders chewing her wings to fibers.

"WHAT THE BUCK!?!" Gilda screamed at Panthera rolling on the floor laughing at her.

"HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?!?!?" Any second the pain of her shredded wings was going to reach her brain and the shadowcat—no!—the monster she had trusted!—was laughing at her! Any second, the pain was going to start…any second… Wh-wh-where's the pain?

What the buck? Gilda wondered, fearfully glancing at her wings. Surely the pain was going to start the moment she saw her bloodied bare wing bones….

Only there were no bloodied bare bones sticking out of her shoulders. There was no pain. In fact, her wings felt just fine. And they looked perfectly normal.

She blinked several times, trying to puzzle it out. She had seen the conveyor belt of those meat shredders stripping through both the upper and lower surfaces of her wings.

"I call this my 'automatic wing preener'," Panthera said getting up to spread her wings out. Gilda watched as the two sets of upper and lower conveyor belts separated to allow her to slip her each of her wings in between and then the belts settled to sandwich her wings. The sharp spiked teeth of the conveyor belts went to work cutting into her limbs was a horrific sight. But instead of screaming in pain, the shadowcat just purred in pleasure.

Still in shock, Gilda cautiously approached and used a claw to see how the spiked teeth felt. Only after she saw and felt how the teeth were like very soft rubber did her terror start to collapse.

"Holey road apples, you scared the squit out of me!" Gilda gasped. And just then, she squitted. Panthera chuckled.

"Looks like it was literally," Panthera giggled. "Forgive me?" Gilda took a few moments to think about it.

"Okay, I'll forgive you, but on one condition," Gilda said, grinning evilly. "That when you decide to pull this on Rainbow Dash, you have to let me watch!"

"Hi there!" a voice softly called out waking Rainbow Dash from her nap on the cloud.

The cloud.

That cloud!

That miserable filthy wad of the most uncooperative stuff ever to be issued out by the Weather Factory….

Normally, she'd enjoy a good strenuous workout with her flying stunts—but this cloud! She had never before had to actually fly so fast, so acrobatically and so randomly in her life! It was like this thing had somehow gotten a mind of its own, and its mind was a copy of hers! The blasted thing had flown just like she did!

Those featherbrains running the place were sure going to get an earful when she got back there…

Oh, wait. Somepony was speaking to her. She cracked open her eyes. It was Panthera.

"Oh, hi Panthera," Rainbow responded with a yawn.

"Actually, it's Pardus," the shadowcat said.

"Whu—? Oh! Sorry!" she said, feeling her face grow hot at the gaff.

"No problem," Pardus responded. "Wacha doin'?"

"Resting up from weather duty. Wacha wantin'?" Rainbow asked.

"I was thinking of doing some racing with you."

"Oh, where were you—" Rainbow paused to look at where the sun was before continuing, "—an hour and a half ago? You could've helped me catch this blasted…" Then she stopped and stared.

"D-d-dude! What the hay? H-h-how are ya standing there!?" she exclaimed. The shadowcat was just standing, and not flapping his wings to hover, in midair!

"How are you laying on that cloud?" Pardus shot back.

"Dude! I'm a pegasus, and I'm on a cloud!"

"Well, I'm not a pegasus. And I'm not on a cloud," Pardus chuckled. "I don't see where that's a problem."

Rainbow had to blink several times, trying to process that. Finally, she had to shake her head to stop thinking about it. Maybe Twilight could figure it out, but it was making her head hurt. Still…

"Dude! That is awesome!" she laughed. Then she gasped as a cloud floated past her nose. She only had a moment for it to register before it took off crazily just like that other one had done.

"Sorry, Pardus! Gotta go!" she called out, taking off after it. "COME BACK HERE!"

Rarity giggled as she used the spell Twilight taught her to dangle another cloud in front of Rainbow's face before zipping it away and the chase was so on! Rainbow left the black shadowcat standing there.

"Yes!" she exclaimed when she hit just the right speed for Rainbow's colorful contrail to be left behind her. Just a few loops and turns to keep it interesting….

"Having fun?"

Rarity looked over to see who as addressing her only to scream. There was the shadowcat standing right there. But-but-but, she thought, looking back into the sky, only the shadowcat wasn't there!

Oh, she must've teleported, she sighed, getting over her fright. But she could've sworn Panthera was still up there when she heard the cat speak to her.

"GOTCHA!" Rainbow Dash's voice called out, having successfully tackled the errant cloud, now that Rarity had lost her focus on it.

"Oh, hello Panthera!" Rarity greeted. "Yes, I was just teasing Rainbow Dash. Twilight showed me a spell this morning that allows unicorns to move clouds. But please, darling, don't whisper a word to Rainbow."

"No problem," the shadowcat said. "But I'm Pardus."

"Oh! I'm so sorry!"

"Don't worry," Pardus said. "It's likely the only one here who can tell us apart without lifting our tails is Trevar. And your secret's safe with me. But looks like I'd better get back up there," he said spreading his wings as he vanished with a ripple of distortion.

"Pardus?" Rainbow called out as she returned to where the shadowcat had been left.

"Hi," a voice behind her called out. She spun about to see the shadowcat standing there.

"Dude! That's so creepy how you do that!"

"Do what?"

"Nevermind," Rainbow said, giving up.

But then, the first cloud that had given her so much trouble this morning was back at it, starting to move out of place again.

"Gyaaaahhhh! WHAT IS IT WITH THESE CLOUDS, TODAY!?" she screamed, zipping over to it and slamming it with her back hooves, smashing it to smithereens.

When Rainbow calmed down, she suddenly realized what she had done.

"Oh, buck!" she groaned, thinking of the paperwork that's going to come from destroying a cloud without authorization. "Uh—I'll—I'll be right back!" she said to Pardus before streaking off for Cloudsdale for a replacement.

"Good morning, Trevar!" Twilight called when the human and his entourage came downstairs. She was just coming in from the outside. "I'm afraid you're a little late for breakfast. And you missed the opportunity to go with Lieutenant Scott to see your new home for while you're staying here."

"Sorry," Trevar replied. "I was up rather late last night."

"So I was informed," Twilight muttered darkly. But then, she had to do a double take at the griffon accompanying him. The oddest thing about her was the lion and eagle feet were reversed, and her tail was feathered rather than leonine.

"Twilight, this is Mittens," Trevar said by way of introduction.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle," Mittens greeted with a respectful bow.

"Panthera's gone off with Gilda to meet with the rest of the griffons in town," Trevar reported. "And Pardus came back last night. He's out talking with Rainbow Dash at the moment."

"Wait, what?" Twilight gasped. "P-P-Pardus?"

"Yes, he got back last night and worked with Panthera for a while. He said he then worked with you for a few hours. Something about measuring your magic and his?"

"Th-th-that was P-Pardus?" Twilight stammered, nervously gulping. "Oh! Oh, this is embarrassing! All night, I ignored Spike telling me it was Pardus and not Panthera! And I was calling him Panthera the whole time he was with me!"

"Well, if you're not willing to confirm which one you're speaking to by asking, maybe the next time you should try lifting their tails," Trevar said grinning.

Discord's sudden arrival halted the three figures. The two captors stared at him in nervous expectation while their captive pleaded for his help.

Discord sighed.

"You're all too predictable!" he yelled at them. "Why don't you do something novel for a change?"

Two of the figures hissed at him while the prisoner once more pleaded for help.

Discord hung his head in defeat, shaking it in exasperation. With a snap of his lion paw's digits, he teleported once more.

He had been searching the Everfree all night long. That was part of the problem about the difference between physics and psychology. Even though he knew how they thought with just as much certainty as knowing the position of an electron, actually tracing them to their hideout was another matter entirely. This was his first lead in finding the lair.

This time, he arrived at the three's eventual destination. Instantly, the hundreds of figures surrounding him reacted in a guarded hostility. They all recognized Discord as one of the most dangerous creatures around, but so long as he didn't engage in hostilities, none was prepared to initiate an attack on the draconequus.

Then Discord looked about and facepawed.

"Fifty feet!" he miserably groaned, thinking about the location he had first tried looking for them earlier last night. "I missed it by just fifty feet!"

"You!" their leader screamed, once she stepped from her chambers to learn who had disrupted all operations.

"Have you ever heard of the one where the definition of insanity is 'doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results'?" Discord asked.

"Considering how you made such a mess of us all, you'd have to be working to create a brand new definition of insanity!" she growled. "Let's see: 'popping in among thousands of your victims and expecting to leave again without a scratch' must be a particular favorite of yours to try!"

"Perhaps," Discord acknowledged. "Although, we all know that I really can leave without so much as a scratch. But that's not what I'm here for. I'm here to offer a proposition." She stared at him in stunned amazement.

"Well, I certainly got that one wrong!" she muttered after recovering her composure. "A proposition? To us? No, that's the new definition you're working on? Congratulations! You've achieved it! Now get out while you still can!"

"Oh, but dear, you haven't heard it yet," Discord slyly told her, flowing over to play his charms on her.

"First of all, your plan to attack the ponies is doomed to failure," he warned her. "Your first attempt was actually a very brilliant plan. You had very nearly succeeded in your efforts, but for the one rule every commander has to pay attention: 'the Plan is always the first casualty when engaging the enemy!' Your failure was not having any sort of backup plan in the event somepony were to disrupt the primary efforts.

"However, your second attempt was quite unwise," Discord continued. "You attacked for the sake of revenge! Revenge is a stupid reason for any military operation!

"And here we are, with you about to do it one more time!" he tisked at her. "That's not just being stupid. That's being reckless!"

"And you're here to help me fix my efforts?" she demanded glaring at him. "To give me the advice I need to succeed? To help me defeat my enemies and save my people? Assuming for a moment we forget that it was you who put us in this desperate situation in the first place, why should we possibly consider taking you up on your offer to aid us? Hmm? After all, you're now the big hero of the Tirek attack, having 'changed and seen the error of your ways' and helping your friends at the last moment," she ramped up her voice. "Are you willing to betray your friends once more, God Of Chaos, to aid us? Or are you merely playing with us like you did Tirek and are planning on betraying me and my children and deliver us all to Princess Twilight and her five pony friends with their new awesome Rainbow powers?" she finished yelling.

"Oh, Chrysalis, Chrysalis, Chrysalis," Discord whispered into her ear as he hugged and kissed her behind her jaw. "You wound me. After all, it was I who saved you all those thousands of years ago, when my people were trying to exterminate you. By changing you and your comrades, your ship was no longer filled with alicorns, so my folk no longer had to worry about any escaping. But you lived, my dear. You and your comrades lived!"

"Only for them all to starve after we arrived here," Chrysalis spat. "You made us feed off of love, where there was none to be found here!"

"But it was the only way to protect you from the [star] entities. And it did give you the means to defeat them," Discord explained. "The Borg were easy for you to evade, but the [star] fed off of hate, anger and war. You, on the other hoof, feed off of love, compassion and hope. Remember when the three aids to the leaders of the unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies rallied their folk to come together and unite to fight off the Borg? It was their joining and cooperation that fed you and your companions with enough power to actually drive off the [star]."

"And. They. Never. Knew. It!" Chrysalis growled. "To this day, even while they all have forgotten the true origin of their own accomplishments with the myth of Hearth's Warming Eve, we on the other hoof don't even rate a mention, because they never knew we were ever there!"

"Well, it's not my fault you didn't hire a good PR director," Discord dismissed with a shrug.

"You're right!" she said, smiling, making him blink in surprise. "We did have a lousy PR director! YOU'RE FIRED!!" she screamed, blasting him with her full charge at point blank range. It left a singe on his brown fur in the middle of his torso, a bemused expression on his face and her dizzy with the loss of her powers. "Next time, we'll hire somepony who knows what the bronk they're doing," she muttered, turning away.

Instead of letting her walk off, however, Discord reached out and spun her about, planting a kiss to her lips, and fed her back double the power she had expended upon him. When he released her, she blinked at him in confusion.

"So what game are you playing with us this time?" she finally demanded.

"No games, I promise. Seriously, you should abandon your efforts to seeking revenge on Twilight Sparkle and her friends," Discord warned her in all sincerity. "There are three others I have in mind that you need to target your efforts on."

"And what should I do about the ones I've already gathered?" she inquired.

"Consider them—a means to the end," Discord told her with a grin. "The same should apply to any other pony who might get caught up in the efforts, even if some of them wind up being the Elements of Harmony. Just so long as they're not your primary goal, you should be alright. I need you to go after a human male, named Allec Trevar and a couple of shadowcats…."

Gilda led Panthera to the hotel room her companions had reserved for their stay.

"Good hunting, Razor!" Panthera called out. Inside, the griffons were performing calisthenics in preparation for the day, several involved in odd looking exercises involving their wings. Blood Feather and Golden Slasher were doing pushups with their wings, while Screaming Eagle was doing pull-ups with hers. Razor stopped her crunches to stand and greet Gilda and Panthera.

"Good hunting, Panthera," Razor responded. "I'm pleased that you have chosen to join us. Ambassador Gustav will be arriving shortly and he will no doubt wish to discuss a matter with you that is probably as vital for your people's interests as it is ours."

"I assume it is a safe bet that this discussion involves Trevar?" Panthera asked.

"It is, indeed," Razor said.

"Good hunting, Mittens," Pardus called as he came in for a landing to join Trevar and his escorts.

"Strike out with the pegasus you're interested in?" Trevar inquired.

"Nyah, she got distracted by a prank being pulled on her by one of her friends," the shadowcat replied. "There're time and potential opportunities yet."

"Mittens, I think I saw your ambassador approaching the hotel where the others are staying," Pardus said to her. "I think you should attend that meeting, don't you?"

"But I'm supposed to provide escort for Trevar," she replied.

"I'll escort him for you," Pardus told her. "And Panthera's attending the meeting, too, so I'll know what's being said."

Mittens took off as their group reached the edge of the town.

But the Equsetrian guards had them skirt around the perimeter. Shortly, they came to a main road where a "Welcome to Ponyville" had been erected to straddle the road. There was house on either side of the road, just inside the sign marking the town's boundary. One house had two pegasi and a unicorn guard force standing watch. The other house, it turned out, was assigned to Trevar for his stay.

"Well, home, sweet home," Trevar muttered as he and Pardus entered while his escort remained outside.

"Mittens?!?" she heard Razor exclaim. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be escorting Trevar!"

"Don't worry about it," Panthera told the griffon. "Trevar is safe from being usurped by the ponies. Pardus is with him. What he and I see and hear the other does as well. Pardus thought it would be best if every griffon be in attendance to hear what Ambassador Gustav has to tell us. Ambassador?"

"Umm, yes!" Gustav belatedly agreed, getting over the surprise himself. On the one claw, there was the fact that the griffon in heat was supposed to be using her hormones to seduce and secure the Cat-Lord, plus the fact that her presence in the room was giving him a major distraction on their business. But the other claw held that he couldn't very well chastise her for failing to do her duty without likewise reprimanding the shadowcats, whom he needed their cooperation.

"At least I can report to successfully mated with the Cat-Lord, Ambassador!" Mittens happily reported.

"Successful?" Gustav exclaimed. "So, are you with cubs, already? After just one night?"

"Uh—I don't know," she heard Mittens meekly mutter.

"I'll not call it a 'successful mating' until I see your eggs hatching new griffons!" he snarled at her. "As soon as we're done here, I want you back in his nest shaking your tail feathers like you mean it!"

"S-s-sorry, Ambassador," she meekly stammered.

"As I was saying," he spoke, trying to resume his train of thought, "it's vital that we convince the Cat-Lord to accept our offer to come to the Griffon Empire as soon as possible."

"Didn't you almost go to war with the ponies over that matter?" Panthera inquired. "And didn't you just conclude an agreement with Celestia to allow Trevar to pursue his own agenda?"

"Yes. Yes to both," Gustav agreed, not happy at all at being contradicted. "And, yes, it was a mistake for me to react the way I did when I first saw the Cat-Lord, for which I deeply regret. His totally unexpected arrival simply caused me to panic over the prospect that he would slip through our claws without so much as wetting them! But if we can convince the Cat-Lord to take us up on our offer, then Celestia cannot very well object, now can she?

"I don't know the situation with you shadowcats, but for us griffons, we are desperate," Gustav continued. "Our bloodlines are getting strained. The war we had with Celestia and Luna nearly wiped us out. It took centuries to overcome our instincts for monogamy to where we're only just getting back to our prewar population again, and our numbers were never all that great to begin with.

"For the first time since our creation, we have one of our progenitors here, where he can inject new blood into our stock," Gustav told her. "We must secure him, before Celestia can get wind of this! And if you're willing, we'd like for you shadowcats to add your blood to ours as well. The survival of our species depends on it!"

At first, Panthera didn't say anything, but her body language spoke volumes with and her ears downturned as she lowered her head.

"That may be difficult due to several factors," she muttered when she finally spoke again. "The least of which, the Cat-Lord is not in whatever form he must have been in when your species was created."

In the next room, a pony quietly sat near the heavily curtained window in the darkened space, using a stethoscope against the wall to listen to the griffons and Panthera meet. There was a shielded magical lamp providing just enough light to allow the pony to furiously scribble down the dialog onto the scroll of parchment.

"How many know about this?" she heard Panthera demand.

"Only those in the highest levels of the Empire and our trusted operatives," Gustav admitted. "If word of this ever leaks out, there will be war, and there will be no stopping it! We've been doing our best to maintain the peace at all costs."

"So 'keeping the peace at all costs' is defined by going to war over Trevar being put on probation?" Panthera asked, sounding incredulous.

"That was my mistake, I admit it! Purely out of desperation! At first, when you showed up in Cloudsdale, I couldn't believe our good fortune. I was going to ask Celestia to allow me to speak with you in private, but then I heard the Cat-Lord speak! I couldn't let you both slip away! I'm sorry! I didn't know if you were aware of him, too and Celestia had no idea who she held! I—I—thought—if I threatened war, she would instantly turn you both over to me! I had no intension of actually doing it. But then she was willing to fight to keep you both…"

"She wasn't willing to go to war over us!" Panthera interrupted. "She was just having a 'what the fuck' moment trying to figure out what your problem was! You had blinded yourself with panic!"

"Of course, I know that. And I'm very sorry for nearly revealing the existence of the Cat-Lord and our situation to Celestia," the pony in the other room heard him admit. "But there's more that you're not aware of. Our war with Equestria a thousand years ago wasn't the first time our species was nearly wiped out. Similar disasters had happen twice before and once again after. Of those, the very first time was when the ship that brought us to this world crashed here."

"So you're not native to this planet?" Panthera asked.

"Neither are the ponies," Gustav replied. "They just got here a few thousand years before us."

"Then who are the original natives?" Panthera wondered.

"Nopony knows," he replied. "Although it's well known that the dragons were here before the ponies, before Celestia ignited the sun. But even they had come from someplace else."

"Do you have any idea of where your home world lies?" she finally asked.

"Unfortunately, no," Gustav muttered.

The conversation went on for a little while longer, and the pony continued writing what was being said, but the subjects discussed were by this time clearly routine pleasantries and evidently a few reminders. Finally, they stopped talking. Then Gustav gave his regards, and she carefully shifted the edge of the curtain so she could look out the window of her room. From her vantage, she watched as first Gustav and then several other griffons and the shadowcat flew away. A couple griffons remained in the room and spoke about settling the hotel bill as it sounded like they were packing their belongings.

The earth pony was very careful to not make a sound as she packed up her spy equipment and hid it all away in a safe place. She waited for the sound of the griffons leaving the room to walk down the hallway to the front desk, and then she began silently counting to herself. When she knew she reached one thousand, she knew it was long enough to not arouse suspicion. Then she left her room and locked the door on her way out before also walking to the front desk.

Pinkie Pie was hopping down the street on all four of her hooves held together, happily humming to herself when she spotted Panthera just standing and staring at a construction site that would be used for pony apartments in the growing business district of Pineville.

"We're going to need a lot of money," the shadowcat muttered to herself.

"How much!? And what for??" Pinkie asked, jumping over to stand next to the shadowcat.

"That remains to be estimated," Panthera replied. Pinkie was disappointed that Panthera didn't seem surprised. She was so sure it was possible to sneak up on the shadowcat.

"But you didn't answer my second question!" Pinkie Pie said, hopping around to face Panthera.

"No. I didn't," Panthera replied as she turned away to walk on.

"Oh! Come on! Maybe I can help!" Pinkie happily offered, hopping on all four hooves alongside the winged feline who was plodding along on her paws.

"That remains to be seen," Panthera muttered.

But just then, Panthera's eyes suddenly began glowing with a brilliant white light as the shadowcat froze in evident shock. This went one for several minutes and Pinkie excitedly waited for the good news that her new friend was going to tell her.

"Whoo-oo! That was a doozy of a surge!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed when the shadowcat's eyes returned to normal. "Are you alright?"

"I will be," Panthera muttered, shaking her head. "Pardus and I have finally learned how to read your language."

"YOU DID?!?" Pinkie exclaimed. "Well, this calls for a CELEBRATION!"

"Ah—no!" Panthera snapped her jaws at Pinkie as she moved to step around. "What it calls for is me resuming my assignment."

"Oh! But you've got to let me help you guys celebrate!" Pinkie pleaded, jumping around, trying to get Panthera to look at her. "I mean, how often do you get to learn a completely new language? Think of all the books you'll be able to appreciate now! Why, I can help you start your own Daring Do collection! Rainbow Dash and Twilight both love those stories! I bet you will, too!"

"Just so you know, all those books that your purple alicorn friend is still busy sorting? Read them," Panthera shouted back in singsong.

…

"There's the Ponyville Confidential!" Pinkie was exclaiming. "Just full of the latest gossip about everypony who's anypony!" Then added with a barely heard mutter, "As well as everypony who's not anypony."

"Pfft! With my mom being the neighborhood's soap opera queen from hell? Seriously not interested!" Panthera spat.

…

"And then, there's all the letters you can write back and forth with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!" Pinkie was still listing all the new things they could do now they could both read.

"We never bothered to learn to write letters when phone calls were much faster and far more informative."

…

"Awww! You gotta let me throw you and your brother a party!" Pinkie pleaded. The shadowcat suddenly looked Pinkie in the eye.

"I see what you're doing," she growled. "And it's not going to work!"

She resumed her walk, stepping past Pinkie.

But then, Panthera suddenly looked back at her, evidently considering something.

"Have you ever heard of a game called 'Predators and Prey'?" she slyly asked, creating a holographic copy of the Role Playing Game rules book for Pinkie to look at.

"Oo-ooh!" Pinkie said in awe.

"Okay, class, let's get settled," Cheerilee called out to the foals still excitedly talking about the strange visitor that had come by during their lunch break. She waited a few moments for them to take their seats. Naturally, they all were still yammering about the encounter. But she shortly had a worried feeling. As all the foals filtered to their seats, it was clear that some were missing.

"Has—has anypony seen Pip? Or Snips? Or—or Snails?" she worriedly asked.

"Maybe those monsters ate them!" Diamond Tiara haughtily announced.

"Yes!" Silverspoon called out. "Especially that huge, black, winged cat! Did you see the teeth on that thing?" she exclaimed with a horrid shudder.

"He did not!" Applebloom yelled.

"And how would you know?" Diamond Tiara yelled back.

"Because Pardus was with us the whole time until he left with the guard and—the—monkey thing!" Sweetie Belle angrily shouted.

"Shows how much you know!" Diamond Tiara replied. "I bet it was that monkey thing!"

"Don't be silly!" Scootaloo exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "The guards were around them the whole time, too! They wouldn't let anypony get eaten!"

"That monkey thing could've been working with the cat!" Silverspoon insisted. "Monkeys are especially clever and cats are sneaky, sneaky hunters!"

"Yeah!" Diamond Tiara instantly agreed before any other pony could respond. "They could've sneaked a grab on poor unsuspecting foals like us, even with the guards watching! You all saw how that cat nearly ate Silverspoon and me! I felt its hot breath on me the whole time it chased us and Silverspoon lost several locks from her tail as that creature tried to grab her with those huge claws! We were almost torn to ribbons! We barely escaped with our flanks intact! Wait until my father hears about this! Princess Twilight or Princess Celestia will have to do something about those—those—monsters!"

"Now, now!" Cheerilee called out, having to uncharacteristically raise her voice. "I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation. Stay here while I go look for them!"

But once she left the room, the rumors really started to fly and grow.

It didn't take Cheerilee long to find her missing students, however. She spotted them standing by the large tree where the bipedal creature and the majority of the guard had awaited their colleagues while the two visitors met with her. The three were standing, staring off toward town, where the entire group had gone after they had left.

"Pip! Snip! Snails!" she called out to them. To her surprise, they continued to stare as if they hadn't heard her. Puzzled, she walked up to them. When she was about three lengths away, she repeated her call. Amazingly, they continued to ignore her. She waited a few moments and was about to walk the rest of the way, when they finally turned and looked at her, staring blankly at her.

"Come along, now! Lunch time is over. Class has started," she reminded them. They continued to look blankly at her. After a few moments, they all blinked once—simultaneously—and then began silently walking toward her.

She looked at them, feeling very puzzled. They were certainly acting very uncharacteristically. But they were following, so she led them back to the school house.

Stepping inside, Cheerilee had to pause to take in the sight.

The usual five troublemakers were the only ones still in their seats. Applebloom was slowly shaking her head while her face was buried in both her hooves, Sweetie Belle looked bored as she rested her chin on a hoof, Scootaloo had faceplanted into her history book, while Diamond Tiara and Silverspoon were still talking with each other in a very animated conversation. The rest of the foals were all in the far corner, hugging each other en mass and screaming in terror.

By the time Cheerilee was able to finally restore order, she didn't care that the three colts she had to fetch had each taken the wrong seats.

Of course, Diamond Tiara and Silverspoon, having seen the three missing colts alive and well, had nothing further to interest them other than their remaining lessons of the day.

But the Cutie Mark Crusaders were really puzzled about how strange they behaved. Normally, Snips and Snails were very disruptive in class by bringing up some gross or otherwise inappropriate subject throughout the day. And Pip was normally very studious, paying close attention to Miss Cheerilee's lessons. But the three simply sat there, not making a sound and not moving. In fact, it seemed as though they weren't even paying attention to Miss Cheerilee's lessons. They just stared forward toward the front of the room, hardly even blinking for several minutes at a time. And when they did blink, it was weird how they did so at the same time. The three fillies glanced at each other, silently confirming they were all seeing the same phenomena.

Rainbow Dash just finished putting the replacement cloud in its place in the sky. She was in a sour mood after all the paperwork for getting the replacement, in a word: BOOOOORRRRRIIIIINNNNNGGGGG!

After all that, she was looking for something with which to entertain herself, when at that moment, she spied Panthera finish talking with Pinkie Pie. Seeing the pink mare go into Sugar Cube Corners, the cyan pegasus launched herself down at the unsuspecting shadowcat, pulling an can of compressed air attached to an airhorn from her mane, intending to do some payback on the winged panther. However, she reared up at seeing the creature's form ripple and vanished from her sight.

"Dang!" she quietly cursed, wildly looking about. "I forgot they could do that!"

But then, she spotted a distortion continuing on in the direction she had last seen the shadowcat. Grinning, she silently glided in behind the nearly invisible creature. Following, she stalked the predator from above, seeing the distortion finally land and the inky black figure eerily became visible again and began slinking through alleys on whatever mission she was on.

As she followed, it soon became clear that Panthera was evidently stalking the male human, one of the griffons, and their entourage of pony guards.

Oh, this is going to be good! Rainbow Dash thought, scoping the creature out from atop the roofs of the houses as she kept the cat in sight. As far as she could tell, the shadowcat was just trying to not be seen by anypony as she would pause to hide if anypony wandered by, before crossing the streets after they passed. She never looked up behind her once.

Waiting for Panthera to prepare for crossing another street as a mixed group of unicorns and earth ponies wandered by, Rainbow Dash prepared for her attack, grinning widely. Her butt wiggled in an oddly feline manner in her anticipation of pouncing.

This is it! she thought as she launched the moment Panthera began to slink across the road, aiming the airhorn as she dove.

"Whatchadoin'?" a voice suddenly called out from behind her ears. Wincing in annoyance, Rainbow Dash halted her attack and came to a sudden stop to hover. Amazingly, Panthera never reacted to whoever ruined her prank, as she continued to cross the street into the next alley. But Rainbow Dash was pissed.

She turned to glare at the idiot who ruined the perfect attack, only to see the faces of both shadowcats who were each hovering above her.

"Whu—?"Rainbow Dash asked, doing a double take at shadowcat down on the street he had been stalking, seeing her vanish in an instant. Then she looked back at both of the shadowcats who had ambushed her.

"Meow!" Panthera snarled.

"GYAAAAHH!" Rainbow Dash screamed.

Pardus and Panthera both roared with laughter, suddenly rolling about in midair as Rainbow tried to catch her breath.

"WH-WHAT THE HAY!? Y-y-you guys tryin' ta give me a heart attack?" she screamed at them.

"Oh, God! You're so easy!" Pardus said, still laughing.

"We like you! You're silly!" Panthera added, giggling.

"Har, har," the azure pegasus grumbled before lifting the can of air and blasting the two cats with it. Somehow, she anticipated they'd barely noticed. They only laughed and guffawed harder.

"Oh, that was wonderful," Pardus said, finally sobering and wiping a tear from his eye. "I've not had a laugh like that in ages. Wish I could stay, but I've got to head off to look up a few items. Do try to keep Panthera out of too much trouble for me, Rainbow Dash. I'll be back later to join up with you guys again," he said as he departed and faded from view. Rainbow Dash kept her eyes on him, hoping to spot the distortion, but there was none.

"Ya somehow suckered me into thinkin' ya were on the ground, didn't ya?" she demanded, glaring at Panthera.

"Heh! Wouldn't be much of a cloaking device if you could see it, now would it?" Panthera asked, lifting a paw, over which a small ball shaped visible distortion rippled. "But toss in a minor holographic distraction, and yep! You're mine!" she added with a grin as the distortion turned into a miniature winged panther.

"Hmf! Pretty clever," Rainbow Dash muttered sourly.

"Meh," the shadowcat dismissed the complement, as well as the illusion, with a shrug of her wings. "It's an old trick we've been pulling for years. Just a matter of applying the proper distractions. You were relying too much on your eyes. Your eyes can easily be fooled. Don't trust them," she finished with an intense stare.

Spike tiredly trudged into town from the castle. He knew Twilight was taking the loss of the Golden Oaks Library tree house very hard, primarily because of the loss of all those books, but also because it was such a wonderful place to live there. Spike missed it, too. Especially since the convenience of already being in town for whenever he needed to go anywhere was gone. Now, he had to walk all that extra distance to get anywhere. Carrousel Boutique had been just a few blocks away and Sugar Cube Corners was just down the other street from there. They were a little closer to Fluttershy's and not much difference to Applejack's, but it was a different route to there. Everything was different, now.

Coming up on Sugar Cube Corners, he spotted Pinkie just finishing talking with one of those spooky-looking shadowcats before the creature turned to leap into the air before vanishing and Pinkie went inside the shop.

He grinned as the shadowcat's image rippled into nothing. They were very spooky-looking. Not scary spooky, but rather, they were really super cool spooky! Plus, they and their human friend really had a strong interest in learning about dragons. He had enjoyed supplying them with all the answers he knew about his kind—which unfortunately, based on their questions, revealed he really didn't know that much about dragons. But they treated him nice. He was looking forward to any opportunity to speak with them again.

However, he was on a mission, as his stomach quickly reminded him. And it was very fortunate that he had seen Pinkie go into the shop. She could always be counted on to supply him with some of those delicious gem encrusted cupcakes without charging him for the cost of all those gemstone flakes. He and Pinkie had a secret rendezvous arrangement that nopony else knew about.

Sure enough, when he entered and greeted the Cakes, Pinkie quickly intervened and asked him if he would come up to her room for a moment. This time, she implied there was a special project she needed his help with in planning a party at the castle, and over the years, he had learned to match her code phrase with an appropriate response.

("Huh?" he asked, totally befuddled. "Party? Castle? What are you talking about, Pinkie?"

"You kno-o-ow—" she drawled. "The pa-ar-ty! At. The. Ca-a-as-s-stl-l-le!"

"Huh?" he asked, even more confused…until it clicked in his head. "Oh. Oh! Right! The party! At the castle! Yeah, I'll be right up!")

Spike knew he was always so smooth helping Pinkie keep the secret from the Cakes about what they were really doing.

Once upstairs, however, instead of her usual hoofing over the bag with the gem encrusted cupcakes, she pulled out a scroll from within her mane.

"Can you do me a very big favor, Spike?" she asked, holding the bag of cupcakes in one hoof and the scroll in the other. "I need you to send this report to Princess Celestia. But you mustn't tell anypony about this. I need you to Pinkie Promise!"

"Sure, Pinkie," Spike eagerly said. "'Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!'" he quoted as he took the scroll and sent it on its way.

("No! No! NO! The other scroll, Spike!" she nearly screamed, yanking the bag of cupcakes back from the dragon before he could send them to the princess. "I seriously doubt Princess Celestia would like breaking her teeth on those, and, of course, you wouldn't get to eat them!"

"Oh. Yeah. I guess you're right about that," Spike agreed with a chuckle, taking the other scroll that she passed to him.

"Silly me," he said, giggling, as his flame turned the real scroll into ash that floated out the window. "She sure would be surprised by those, wouldn't she?"

"Without a doubt!" Pinkie said whewwing as she wiped her poll with her fetlock.)

"Here you go, Pinkie," Spike said, handing the bits over to her in exchange for the bag of cupcakes. "Same time, tomorrow?"

"Of course!" she happily exclaimed as she followed him out of her room and down the stairs.

"Great!" Spike said, cleverly raising his voice to ensure he kept up the deception they had arranged to keep the Cakes in the dark. "I'll be sure to get this to Twilight so we can prepare for the party! At the castle!"

"Okay! See ya!" she called out and waved good-bye as he left the shop.

"The usual?" Mr. Cake asked as Pinkie dropped the bits into the register.

"Um-hmm!" Pinkie hummed nodding. "I know he'd rather get those worthless gem slivers straight from Rarity, but I thought it'd be more fun for the little guy to enjoy them sprinkled over his cupcakes."

"That's so sweet of you!" Mrs. Cake spoke up giggling. "And it's so adorable that he thinks you're pulling a secret mission to get them to him."

"Convenient, too!" Pinkie agreed with a huge smile.

At Canterlot Castle, a scroll magically appeared in front of her, which she plucked out of the air with her magic. Upon reading the report, her brow furled with worry.

"This is far more serious than we had imagined," she muttered to herself.

Later that afternoon, Twilight Sparkle arrived at Sugar Cube Corners.

"Hello, Mister and Misses Cake!" she greeted upon seeing them as she entered.

"Greetings, your majesty!" they called back. Twilight Sparkle sighed.

"Please! It's just Twilight!" she pleaded with them. Living up to being an alicorn princess was something she had no idea how to handle.

"But that wouldn't be proper!" Misses Cake responded, obviously not seeing the irony in resuming an argument that often escalated to disrespectful status while insisting on being respectful.

Luckily, Twilight caught herself before letting her get back into that vicious cycle. Repeatedly. Once more. Again. She remembered that she was here because Pinkie Pie wanted to show her something very fun.

"Hi, uh—can you tell me where I can find Pinkie Pie?" she asked.

"Oh, why she's gone to get supplies to restock the store," Mister Cake answered. "She just left. If you hurry, you might catch her."

"Thank you, Mister and Misses Cake," she said, quickly bolting out the door. That was a lucky break! she thought.

As she searched about town, she heard a commotion coming from a few blocks ahead as well as seeing several ponies rushing through the streets away from the area.

When Twilight arrived, the scene was as horrific as it was inexplicable.

Pinkie Pie was busy dodging about, bouncing midair off of somethings that quickly revealed themselves to be shadowcats! Dozens and dozens of them where about the square, rubbing the tops of their heads.

Suddenly, in the middle of one her leaps, Pinkie Pie exclaimed, "HEY! NO FAI—oof!" She was interrupted as something tackled her and she landed hard on her back. Another shadowcat suddenly appeared straddling Pinkie Pie!

Then several dozen more shadowcats decloaked, many of them hovering in flight above the scene.

Where did all these shadowcats come from? Twilight wondered in astonishment. There were only supposed to be two!

"Gotcha!" Panthera purred as Pardus stepped up. The other shadowcats all settled about and slowly surrounded the three.

"NO FAIR!" Pinkie Pie screamed from where Panthera held her. "THOSE TWO WEREN'T THERE JUST A SECOND AGO AND THEY DIDN'T TELEPORT IN, EITHER!" she shouted, pointing at the two. "And what happened to there only being two of you, anyhow?"

"LET HER GO!" Twilight Sparkle angrily yelled, firing off blasts with her horn at the mass of shadowcats. To the evident surprise of the alicorn, the blasts blew apart several of the creatures. Seeing they were easily destroyed, she started to blast them all in earnest. If you're going to infiltrate and attack us like that… she thought, growling.

"I SAID, 'NO FAIR!'" Pinkie Pie screamed.

"Technically speaking, if the rules allow us to create a few holograms which perform as we direct, then it can't exactly be 'unfair', now can it?" Pardus replied.

Pinkie Pie was going to respond, but then had to think about what the winged panther said.

"Uh!—oh—good point," she finally had to admit. Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle had cleared away all of the shadowcats except for six: Panthera and Pardus and four others.

At first, Twilight Sparkle's blasts struck the other shadowcats directly. But they weren't disrupted and they turned to face her and then shields blocking her blasts sprung up. The two standing over Pinkie Pie, were already under cover of their shields.

"Let. Her. Go!" the purple alicorn demanded growling, really charging up her horn.

"Are you done shooting up the entire village, yet?" Pardus politely inquired.

"So, Pinkie. What other games can we do that—maybe—won't involve highly inappropriate and very disruptive application of military scale ordinance?" Panthera asked Pinkie Pie as the female winged panther finally released her prize.

"Wait! This was a game?" Twilight asked, perplexed.

"'Predators 'N Prey'. Ever hear of it?" Pardus asked, manifesting a holographic gamers' manual before the alicorn.

"That was rather fun!" one of the four additional shadowcats said. "At least up until that last little bit. Talk with you later, Panthera and Pardus!" it said, with a wave before it and the other three launched up into the air before their forms rippled into invisibility.

"Who were those guys?" Twilight asked, looking up after them.

"Nobody," Pardus replied with a toothy grin.

Pinkie giggled at how they cleverly suckered Twilight into believing they were real. These guys are goooood!